 |  | | Rusty Wallace's lone victory in the All-Star race is one to be remembered, but he barely held on to win. Credit: Autostock |
By Josh Pate, NASCAR.COM
May 19, 2006
04:55 PM EDT (20:55 GMT)
There are no points. Winning the race doesn't even count toward a driver's career statistics. But the Nextel All-Star Challenge might just be the most heated race in the Nextel Cup Series. At least history says as much. Maybe it was the "pass in the grass." Maybe it was the crash just a few feet after taking the checkered flag on "one hot night." Or maybe it was a fight just after the "Tide slide." Rusty Wallace was running down Darrell Waltrip in the final 10-lap segment of the 1989 all-star race. He got beside Waltrip as the two approached the white flag. Wallace never lifted off the gas. The result pushed his nose into Waltrip's rear quarter panel, turning Waltrip around and sending his Tide-sponsored Chevy through the infield grass. Wallace went on to win the race -- although not by much -- and fisticuffs broke out between the pit crews of Wallace and Waltrip. "I hope he chokes on that $200,000," Waltrip said of Wallace and his winnings. What you didn't know
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0.23 -- Seconds Rusty Wallace beat Ken Schrader by for his only All-Star victory in 1989 after spinning leader Darrell Waltrip out of the way on the final lap. |
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Numerology This year's Nextel All-Star Challenge will be the 22nd running of the exhibition dash for cash. A simple look at the list of winners proves the event is a true measure of the series' all-star drivers. Some of the winners' other credentials, however, combined with their all-star victory puts them on a whole different pedestal.
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0.158 -- Seconds that Ryan Newman beat Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the 2002 All-Star race, making Newman just the second rookie to win the event. The other is Earnhardt Jr. in 2000. |
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1 -- Number of drivers who have won back-to-back All-Star races. Davey Allison completed the feat in 1991 and again in 1992 at the pinnacle of his shortened career. |
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1 -- Times the All-Star race was not held at Lowe's Motor Speedway. In 1986, the second year of the event, it was held in Atlanta, where Bill Elliott claimed victory. |
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2 -- Drivers who won the Daytona 500 and went on to win the Nextel All-Star Challenge: Jeff Gordon (1997) and Davey Allison (1992). |
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2 -- Segments won by Mark Martin of the three that were run in last year's all-star race. He won the first and final segments. |
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3 -- Lap window in which teams must pit during the first segment. All teams must make a green-flag, four-tire pit stop between Laps 14 and 16. |
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4 -- Drivers who won the Nextel All-Star Challenge and the Cup Series championship in the same year: Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon. Earnhardt and Gordon did it three times. |
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5 -- Drivers who have won multiple All-Star races: Mark Martin (1998, 2005), Jeff Gordon (1995, 1997, 2001), Terry Labonte (1988, 1999), Dale Earnhardt (1987, 1990, 1993) and Davey Allison (1991, 1992). |
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7 -- Different winners in the past seven All-Star races. Mark Martin (1998, 2005) is the most recent two-time winner. |
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7 -- Nextel All-Star Challenge winners who are also Cup Series champions: Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliott, Dale Earnhardt, Terry Labonte, Rusty Wallace, Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth. |
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7 -- Former All-Star winners in the 2006 race: Jeff Gordon (1995, 1997, 2001), Michael Waltrip (1996), Mark Martin (1998, 2005), Dale Earnhardt Jr., (2000), Ryan Newman (2002), Jimmie Johnson (2003) and Matt Kenseth (2004). |
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7.334 -- Average starting position for All-Star winners. Dale Earnhardt (once) and Davey Allison (twice) are the only drivers to win from the pole, having done it three consecutive years from 1990 to 1992. |
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10.526 -- Average finish of drivers who advanced into the All-Star race by winning the Open. The average does not include 1986, when the Atlanta Invitational winner did not advance. |
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11 -- All-star victories by a Chevrolet. Ford has won nine of the events, while Pontiac has one victory. |
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12 -- Drivers who raced in the All-Star event in its inaugural running in 1985, the day prior to the World 600. Darrell Waltrip's engine blew as he crossed the finish line to win. |
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14 -- Different winners in the Nextel All-Star Challenge in the 21 events that have been held. |
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19 -- Drivers who are eligible to compete in the Nextel All-Star Challenge. Two additional drivers will be in the field: the Nextel Open winner and the driver voted in by the fans. |
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20 -- All-Star races Terry Labonte has raced of the 21 total. The only year he did not race was 1991. He is not entered this year. |
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70 -- Laps Dale Earnhardt led in the 1990 All-Star race, pacing the field from start to finish to beat Ken Schrader by 0.34 seconds. |
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70 -- Laps Davey Allison led in 1991, making it the second year in a row the race was led flag-to-flag and the second consecutive year Ken Schrader finished second, this time by 2.9 seconds. |
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82 -- Laps Bill Elliott led of the 83 total in the 1986 running of the All-Star race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Elliott gave up the lead to Dale Earnhardt on Lap 40 when he entered pit road but regained the lead exiting pit road. He beat second-place Earnhardt by 2.55 seconds. |
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309 -- Races Michael Waltrip went without a victory in the Cup Series before claiming the 1996 All-Star race, but he almost didn't make it into the field. Waltrip qualified by finishing fifth in the Open under a different format that allowed the top-five drivers to transfer. |
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1987 -- Year that Dale Earnhardt got his first All-Star race, but a controversy around rough driving between Earnhardt, Bill Elliott and Geoff Bodine in the final 10-lap segment resulted in a NASCAR "investigation." Most remember it as the "Pass in the Grass." |
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1992 -- Davey Allison won the first All-Star race under the lights and crashed hard into the wall after taking the checkered flag in a car named "007." |
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$1,679,439 -- Money Jeff Gordon has won from his 12 All-Star appearances. |
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The present formula that makes up the All-Star race is not exactly a piece of history. It's the eighth different format under which the race has been run. The longest any format has lasted is six years.
| Inside the Numbers |
| Different formats the all-star race has seen |
| Year |
Winner |
Format |
| 1985 |
Darrell Waltrip |
70 laps |
| 1986 |
Bill Elliott |
83 laps |
| 1987 |
Dale Earnhardt |
75 laps, 50 laps, 10 green laps |
| 1988 |
Terry Labonte |
-- |
| 1989 |
Rusty Wallace |
-- |
| 1990 |
Dale Earnhardt |
50 laps, 20 laps |
| 1991 |
Davey Allison |
-- |
| 1992 |
Davey Allison |
30 laps, 30 laps, 10 green laps |
| 1993 |
Dale Earnhardt |
-- |
| 1994 |
Geoff Bodine |
-- |
| 1995 |
Jeff Gordon |
-- |
| 1996 |
Michael Waltrip |
-- |
| 1997 |
Jeff Gordon |
-- |
| 1998 |
Mark Martin |
30 laps, 30 laps, 10 green laps |
| 1999 |
Terry Labonte |
-- |
| 2000 |
Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
-- |
| 2001 |
Jeff Gordon |
-- |
| 2002 |
Ryan Newman |
40 laps, 30 laps, 20 green laps |
| 2003 |
Jimmie Johnson |
-- |
| 2004 |
Matt Kenseth |
40 laps, 30 laps, 20 green laps |
| 2005 |
Mark Martin |
-- |
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